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Chairman's Bulletin March 2012

Welcome to March's e-bulletin which gives Governors news and
information about our Trust and what is going on in the NHS.

I'm sure you won't be surprised to see that I am beginning this
month's bulletin with the exciting news of the official opening of
our new hospitals by Her Majesty The Queen and His Royal
Highness The Duke of Edinburgh which took place on Friday
23rd March.

We were incredibly excited that we had been chosen as part of
this year's Diamond Jubilee celebrations. This was an
historic occasion for the organisation.

A specially commissioned piece of music by the Royal Northern
College of Music 'Diamonds, feathers and saxophones' was played as
the Royal party exited the Royal Eye Hospital and Her Majesty was
presented with the score in a commemorative book.

The event was attended by over 1,000 guests and members of staff
and hundreds more lined the Boulevard to witness this spectacular
event.

The acquisition of Trafford Healthcare NHS Trust (THT) by our
Trust has now been approved by The Secretary of State for
Health.

This approval is the final stage following the approvals by: Our
Board, The NHS Co-operation and Competition Panel (CCP), Care
Quality Commission and Monitor.

This means that the acquisition will take place on 1st April
2012.

We have a long established relationship with Trafford Healthcare
Trust and have been working with them over the provision of some
services for a number of years. We want to ensure that the
high quality services continue to be provided in Trafford and we
are in a strong position to ensure that this is possible.

The acquisition will provide much greater financial stability
and security for health services in Trafford.

If there is anything I can do to assist you in your role as a
Governor, please contact me on 0161 276 8661 or at peter.mount@cmft.nhs.uk

Manchester researchers are to receive over £6m to develop a new
internet-based tool to help improve diagnoses made by nurses and
doctors in GP surgeries.

NHS Greater Manchester will be handed almost £6.3m by the
government to try to improve safety for patients.

The online tool - which will be devised by academics at the
University of Manchester - will aim to identify symptoms of cancer
and rare diseases, which will help clinicians who are in any doubt
about making a diagnosis.

Swathes of senior GPs stand to profit from the Government's
contentious NHS reforms through shares they hold in private medical
companies, research has found, raising further concerns about
potential conflicts of interest within the health system.

General entry for the 2012 Great North Run is closed but you can
still get involved by joining the CMFT Charity running team.

The charity team has a limited number of guaranteed entry places
available for the Great North Run which takes place Sunday
16th September 2012 in Newcastle. Places can be used to
run in support of any of our family of hospitals.

All our runners will receive a fundraising pack including
t-shirt for race day, sponsor forms, JustGiving.com information and
will receive a medal on the day.

A collaboration that could lead to
the developments of new treatments andtechnologies to address unmet
clinical needs was announced this month between ourselves and
Devices for Dignity (D4D), a national Healthcare Technology
Co-operative.

The collaboration between the two organisations was announced at
our Partners in Care conference. With the support of their
charitable funds, we will make available a support grant of £30k to
enable them to fast track some of the unmet clinical needs.

We have received welcome feedback from the Care Quality
Commission (CQC) following a review of the Short Break service. The
report found that the service is meeting all the essential
standards of quality and safety.

We are really pleased with the outcome of the review and in
particular with the feedback from patient's parents. Comments such
as "a fantastic service" and another saying that their son getting
a place at the home was like "winning the lottery" are testament to
our passion and determination to deliver excellent patient
care.

Gill Heaton, Chief Nurse and Director of Patient Services said:
"We are really pleased with the findings of the CQC in its review
of compliance and we are particularly proud of the positive
comments and feedback our service has received from our patient's
parents."

The CQC praised our staff for engaging very well with service
users and treating them with respect as well as recognising the
positive and warm relationships our staff have with service
users.

It was announced recently that the
developers are rebranding the Former Royal Eye Hospital as
Citilab.

Citilab is a new 100,000 sq ft
biomedical centre of excellence, located on Oxford Road at the
heart of Europe's largest clinical academic campus. It will attract
biohealth companies to develop new products and services designed
to meet the needs and expectations of patients.

The Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Facility and The Wellcome
Trust Children's Clinical Research Facility (WTCRFs), at the Trust
are celebrating after securing £5.5 million from the National
Institute for Health Research (NIHR) to carry out research
into many of the major diseases and illnesses that affect the
population of Greater Manchester and the wider North West. We
are one of three leading hospital trusts, working closely with The
University of Manchester, to be awarded funding.

The WTCRFs will expand world class Experimental Medicine in
areas of high priority and unmet need including arthritis, mental
health, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, dermatology, paediatrics
and genetic medicine. The WTCRFs will also support the brand new £6
million NIHR Manchester Musculoskeletal Biomedical Research Unit
and Translational Research Partnership in Joint and Related
Inflammatory Disease in their goal of 'Treating Arthritis: Right
First Time'.